Airport Opponents’ Golden Opportunity

The pate and wine was set aside. It was time for the pitch. Guests hushed as the first of several charts and maps went up and the speaker began to describe the impact of commercial jets flying into El Toro.

“They will make noise.” “They will pollute.” It will happen here, the speaker said.

And guests at the home of Laguna Beach’s mayor in the gated community of Three Arch Bay knew that when neighbor Bruce Smith took his turn at the podium, they would be called upon to open their hearts and checkbooks to Measure F, the March 7 ballot initiative aimed at blocking an airport at the former Marine Corps Air Station.

When the talk was over, the action picked up. At first, checks came in small amounts--the $100 to $200 range. Then several people began handing over checks of $500, then $5,000, until one high-stakes businessman stepped forward and handed Smith a check for $25,000.

In the land of gentry, where seaside homes go for several million bucks, anti-airport organizers have struck pay dirt among the gated crowd and other South County homeowner groups.

Since December, a handful of homeowner associations in Dana Point’s exclusive Monarch Bay area--which is akin to Malibu’s exclusive colony north of Los Angeles--have raised $750,000, the lion’s share of the overall total of $1 million raised by the Measure F campaign.

Money is also being poured into the anti-Measure F fight by proponents of an airport. Orange County businessman George Argyros, for example, loaned $300,000 to the airport effort. It appears, though, that for airport opponents, raising the most money is nothing less than a point of pride.

Just days before Tuesday’s election, Smith, a retired Chicago steel executive, is overjoyed. In fact, he noted that the community’s fundraising thermometer, a clunky-looking sign at Three Arch’s front gate, was wrong: TAB residents, as they’re called, raised $310,000, exceeding their $200,000 goal by $110,000.

A few blocks down Pacific Coast Highway in Monarch Bay, homeowners raised $250,000. But hey, said Monarch resident Leonard Kranser, “we only have 214 homes.” Three Arch Bay has nearly 500, he said.

The stakes, it would seem, are high when an Orange County homeowner fears lowered property values due to jet noise and pollution.

“It’s visceral,” Smith said, adding, “No one is going to stay here and live in a $4-million house and have aircraft going over every night.”

Measure F supporters told the donors at the Three Arch Bay event that El Toro as a commercial facility would have 823 flight operations a day, that property values would drop 27%, and that there are no noise or curfew restrictions in sight.

“This was a rallying point to put your money where your mouth is,” said Laguna Beach Mayor Kathleen Blackburn, who hosted the event. “We had a noise demonstration last summer, and I thought the plane was going to crash into the hill behind us. It was scary. They went right over my deck, over Three Arch Bay and Monarch Bay. . . . These communities have donated so much money because the impact is going to be so significant.”

Michael Pinto, chairman of the board and founder of the Laguna Beach Education Endowment and Capital Fund, who is no stranger to community fund-raising, said he was pleasantly surprised that Blackburn and her neighbors had raised those amounts.

“If you live in a community you love, then the community is really special to you,” he said. “These contributors to Measure F are not only concerned about the quality of their own lives today but for future generations.”

The pro-airport side takes issue with statements presented as fact during the fund-raiser, especially the part about jet airliners flying directly over the two communities. Neither the Orange County Board of Supervisors nor the airport authority has made any decisions on flight paths, said Bruce Nestande, chairman of Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, one of the groups pushing for an airport.

“It sounds like they’ve found a good fund-raising technique,” he said of the Measure F backers. “I can’t discourage political involvement especially when they feel strongly about it. But I think they’re misinformed.

“Nothing has been decided,” he said. “I have friends down there, and during the flight demonstration, they didn’t see or hear any of the airplanes.”

John Christensen, a spokesman for the county’s El Toro master development program, said there are no flight paths over Laguna Beach or Three Arch Bay.

“The arrival corridor goes up Aliso Creek, over the industrial area of Aliso Viejo, over a golf course and then the industrial complexes of Laguna Hills and Irvine.”

Christensen added: “There never have been and never will be, flights above Laguna Beach.”

But Measure F organizers aren’t so sure and don’t trust the county’s airport planners to protect their concerns, Measure F organizer Jim Davy said.

Mining South County’s gated communities and homeowner associations with membership lists was like tapping into a rich vein for the ballot measure effort. Homeowners are united by common threads, not only concern for public safety and sense of community, but in this case the threat of a commercial airport and what it might mean in disruption of their lives, Davy said.

“They probably have more at stake than unguarded and ungated communities in terms of home values,” said Davy, who with the help of volunteers tapped more than 100 homeowner groups. “They also have more communication with each other going on, usually in the form of a neighborhood newsletter and they’re much more accessible because of that.”

Blackburn said she and her neighbors know they are in for a long battle, and they are digging the trenches.

“I keep telling my neighbors, don’t get discouraged, this is a war,” she said. “Whether Measure F passes or fails, the fight continues.”